setup: [E-Mail Ministry] The Apple Basket

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THE APPLE BASKET

One day an elderly man entered into a hospital. He was grumpy from being on
medication and the nurses thought him to be insane, as he yelled for his
wife to get the apple basket. By the time they had checked him into his room
the nurses were exhausted from the fight he was putting up.

"Sir you have to calm down we are doing everything we can for you" they
would try to explain.

"I don't need your help" the grumpy man would yell "I want my apple basket".
He finally slept. The nurses sighed with relief and talked among themselves
whether they should call the hospital psychologist about the old man and his
obsession with the apple basket.

As they talked and laughed about the situation the wife came in carrying the
basket of apples. They looked kind of stunned as she asked if she could see
her husband and deliver his basket. Sure, they agreed as they watched her
slip past into his room.

Curiosity consumed them over the next few weeks as they tended to the
elderly man. He was eaten with cancer and the doctors had given him no hope
of survival. He turned out to be a very calm, happy man once he had his
basket. His wife, they noticed, would come in with apples and go out with
apples and the curiosity grew even more till one nurse couldn't stand the
suspense.

One night as he was nearing the end, the nurse sat down in a chair by the
wife." May I ask why do you have that apple basket? I just don't understand
the significance."

"I am an apple farmer by trade he sighed. From the time I was 20 till the
day I do die I will forever have my apples." The nurse nodded thinking she
understood. He just likes his work, she thought, assured now he was a little
bit crazy.

As she started to leave, the old man asked her to sit down. "At age 20 I
was saved, I accepted the Lord as my Savior." Oh no, the nurse thought. Here
comes the lecture on religion. The old man continued. "The day I accepted
the Lord as my Savior I got this basket, and each time I had a problem or
concern that I could not handle, I put an apple in the basket un-shined."

"Why?" the nurse said shaking her head.

"Because it reminded me to give those problems to the Lord for him to shine.
See my basket now," he stated. "As my problems disappear so do the apples.
As I get new problems, ones I cannot handle alone, I put an apple in."

The humble nurse looked into the basket...only one apple was there.

With that, he took a big breath and grabbed his wife by the hand and faded
into eternal sleep. The wife paused for a moment and got up from her place
to take from the basket the last remaining apple. She whispered in his ear
that his reward awaits him in heaven.

The nurse stayed still and asked with tears in her eyes, "what do you think
his riches will be?"

The wife knew what they were, eternal life with Jesus Christ. But she could
see the concern and sadness upon the young nurses' face and handed her the
apple and said "the biggest apple pie you can imagine!"

That was the day the young nurse was saved, and from that day on she always
had a basket by her bed.

-- Author Unknown

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